<p>The World Health Organization has listed Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, the agency said on Friday, the fifth to be given the status meant to expedite countries' own approval of shots.</p>.<p>"The objective is to make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics available as rapidly as possible to address the emergency," the WHO said in a statement.</p>.<p>WHO Assistant Director-General Mariangela Simao said on Friday it was important to have more vaccines available because of supply problems for other shots, including from India, a main source of vaccines for the global COVAX vaccine sharing programme. India has restricted exports because of a crisis of infections.</p>.<p>Moderna announced this week an expansion plan for its production network to boost its capacity to up to 3 billion doses in 2022.</p>.<p>The WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) already in January had recommended Moderna's vaccine for all age groups 18 and above.</p>.<p>Pfizer and its German partner BionTech's shot, also an mRNA vaccine like Moderna's, was the first vaccine to get a WHO emergency use listing in the final hours of 2020.</p>.<p>Since then, the WHO has added vaccines from Astrazeneca-SK Bio, Serum Institute of India and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to the list.</p>.<p>The Geneva-based health organization is still considering Covid-19 vaccines from Sinopharm and Sinovac following an extended review, with decisions due by the end of next week.</p>
<p>The World Health Organization has listed Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, the agency said on Friday, the fifth to be given the status meant to expedite countries' own approval of shots.</p>.<p>"The objective is to make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics available as rapidly as possible to address the emergency," the WHO said in a statement.</p>.<p>WHO Assistant Director-General Mariangela Simao said on Friday it was important to have more vaccines available because of supply problems for other shots, including from India, a main source of vaccines for the global COVAX vaccine sharing programme. India has restricted exports because of a crisis of infections.</p>.<p>Moderna announced this week an expansion plan for its production network to boost its capacity to up to 3 billion doses in 2022.</p>.<p>The WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) already in January had recommended Moderna's vaccine for all age groups 18 and above.</p>.<p>Pfizer and its German partner BionTech's shot, also an mRNA vaccine like Moderna's, was the first vaccine to get a WHO emergency use listing in the final hours of 2020.</p>.<p>Since then, the WHO has added vaccines from Astrazeneca-SK Bio, Serum Institute of India and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to the list.</p>.<p>The Geneva-based health organization is still considering Covid-19 vaccines from Sinopharm and Sinovac following an extended review, with decisions due by the end of next week.</p>